Shynelle has had a great deal of success in a variety of sports, including fastball, basketball, badminton, athletics and volleyball. In the past year, Shynelle won an ASAA Gold Medal in Mixed Doubles Badminton, a ASAA Bronze Medal in High Jump, an Aggregate 3rd at ASAA Athletic Provincials, and a Silver medal in Badminton Mixed Doubles at the 2020 Alberta Winter Games. Last summer Shynelle was named to Volleyball Alberta’s Provincial 16U Women’s Team for the 2nd year in a row and competed at Volleyball Canada’s Cup in Halifax, Nova Scotia. During her HS volleyball season Shynelle was named to the All-Star Team at four different tournaments and was named to the League All-Star team.

Most recently, Shynelle was selected by Volleyball Canada as one of 16 athletes from across Canada to join the National Excellence Program at the Team Canada Women’s Volleyball training centre in Richmond, BC for the fall semester. The National Excellence Program (NEP) is designed to prepare athletes to perform at the highest level of our sport and to continue their development towards the National Senior Team Program and/or playing professional volleyball. NEP athletes, through training, competition, and tours are introduced to leading international volleyball programs and clubs. Shynelle is one of three Alberta athletes selected to the program.

In the classroom, Shynelle is an Honours student at Notre Dame. Shynelle’s goals include playing volleyball at a post-secondary level in either USport in Canada or NCAA D1 in the United States, and is currently considering several scholarship offers.

With Shynelle’s strong work ethic, her undeniable athletic abilities and her training experiences with ASDC-Central, she will surely continue to grow, develop and succeed in her volleyball career!

ASDC-Central thanks Tom Bast Sports for celebrating the ASDC-Central Athlete of the Month recipients by the provision of commemorative apparel for each recipient.

The main purpose of the ASDC network is to coordinate and enhance services available to Alberta's emerging athletes and coaches. These regional centres provide services to athletes and coaches residing in rural and urban areas allowing athletes to develop and train at a high level without leaving home.

Blackfalds Town Council approves Arena and Library Expansion – Video and photo galleries included

From the Town of Blackfalds

The Town of Blackfalds is moving forward with the Arena and Library Expansion

The Town of Blackfalds is excited to announce that the Arena and Library Expansion project will be proceeding and shovels will be in the ground in June of 2020 with a completion date targeted for Spring of 2021.

At their May 26 regular meeting, Council voted 4 to 3 to approve the final and guaranteed maximum price of the $24.6M capital budget which includes $18 M for the arena (which includes a $1 M contribution by the Junior A team) and $6.6 M for the Library.

Seats along window wall

1st floor view of library

Games room

2nd floor outdoor patio

Outdoor patio

Library

View from 2nd floor mezanine

Wide angle view of library

Over the last year, the Town participated in various engagement opportunities including public open houses and meetings with stakeholders, school boards, and other organizations. The consultations prompted changes and additions to be incorporated into the design to improve the functionality of the facility which also resulted in increased costs.

Town of Blackfalds Mayor Richard Poole is proud of the work that Administration and its contractors ACI Architects, Eagle Builders and Delnor Construction undertook in the last 2 months to review those areas where costs could be reduced to come up with a target value design, “I support this project for a number of reasons,” asserts Mayor Poole. “First of all, this will be an excellent value for our community when it is built. It will be second to none and I believe it will be a project our community will be proud of, and, as Councillor Taylor stated, it will ‘enhance business opportunities within our community.’ The Abbey Centre continues to receive praise and compliments from community members throughout Alberta and I am confident Blackfalds will duplicate that success with this facility.”

Blackfalds Arena Expansion

Wide view of arena / seating

Blackfalds arena

Blackfalds arena

Dressing room

View from 2nd floor arena lounge area

Mayor Poole added, “I am also excited about the opportunities that the AJHL will bring to the community. The new Library is going to be one of the largest in central Alberta and, for a community under 20,000, this will be an attraction that we will not only be extremely proud of, but given the provisions of the facility, will allow for progressive programming even in a post-COVID era. In addition, by awarding the construction contract to Eagle Builders, we are providing jobs for many central Alberta families. I am thrilled to be working with such great partners like Eagle Builders, Delnor and ACI with whom we have had a great relationship in the past.”

The guaranteed maximum price ensures that the Town will not pay any more than the $24.6M and therefore, if the cost of the project does go up, the risk will be to Delnor and Eagle Builders, and not the municipality. CAO Thompson echoed some of Council’s words, “We want to provide a high quality facility to our community similar to our past successful projects, and not have to cut corners.”

No active cases of COVID-19 in Central Alberta!

Big news for Central Alberta as this region is reporting NO confirmed active cases of COVID-19.

The first stage of opening up the province has not had an adverse effect in Central Alberta. While opening up the economy could very well result in a number of new cases, after two full weeks that has not happened!

Here’s the Central Alberta breakdown. Locations are listed by the number of ‘active’ cases in each region.

Red Deer City – 37 cases – 0 active

Red Deer County – 15 cases – 0 active

Mountain View County – 9 cases – 0 active

Kneehill County – 4 cases – 0 active

Ponoka County – 3 cases – 0 active

Wetaskiwin City – 8 cases – 0 active

Vermilion River County – 6 cases – 0 active

Stettler County – 3 cases – 0 active

Lacombe County – 3 cases – 0 active

Camrose City – 2 cases – 1 death – 0 active

Lacombe City – 2 cases – 0 active

Beaver County – 2 cases – 0 active

Clearwater County – 2 cases – 0 active

City of Lloydminster – 1 case – 0 active

Camrose County – 1 case – 0 active

Minburn County – 1 case – 0 active

MD of Wainwright – 1 case – 0 active

The “day and case status” graph below shows just how the situation in Alberta is improving drastically. Just a month ago, there was an equal number of active and recovered cases. Now there are only 400 active cases in the entire province. Over 6,500 Albertans are considered recovered.

Central Alberta continues has been the least affected region in the province. In fact, the number of confirmed cases was reduced by 1 from 99 to 98 in Central Alberta as Alberta Health deducted one of the cases from the County of Red Deer. Here are the numbers from each zone.